Optical fibers are a type of optical waveguide that include a core, a cladding that surrounds the core, and a protective coating that surrounds the cladding. The protective coating is typically made of a polymer (e.g., a UV-cured acrylate), while the core and cladding are typically made of glass.
Optical fibers are used in a variety of applications that require terminating an end of the fiber, e.g., with an optical fiber connector. This requires among other things stripping away a portion of the protective coating to leave a bare portion of the optical fiber.
One method of stripping the coating from an optical fiber uses a tool that mechanically contacts the optical fiber. While mechanical stripping tools can be made compact for field deployment and can be low cost, they tend to damage and weaken the resulting bare fiber section.
To avoid such damage, non-contact stripping techniques have been developed. These include hot-nitrogen-jet, plasma, and laser-based techniques. Laser-based stripping techniques have the advantage of providing precise coating removal without mechanical damage. One type of laser-based stripping is performed using a CO2 laser, wherein the coating absorbs the infrared wavelength of the CO2 laser beam. The absorption causes the coating to heat up and then disintegrate. Unfortunately, the equipment for laser-based stripping tools has to date not been amenable to field deployment because of limitations in cost, size, weight and power consumption.